The Rapp for Aug. 16

GOP, Allen and Hurt gather at Gray Ghost Aug. 25

Former governor and U.S. Senate candidate George Allen and Congressman Robert Hurt, who represents Virginia’s 5th District, are scheduled to be featured speakers at a Tri-County Grand Old Party Barbecue on Saturday, Aug. 25, at Gray Ghost Vineyards in Amissville.

The public is invited to this free family picnic event, sponsored by the Republican committees of Culpeper, Fauquier and Rappahannock counties. Hours are from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The sponsors invite families from the three counties to come out to meet the candidates and enjoy a free picnic lunch, country music and sweets and treats including ice cream. There will be games and balloons for the kids and free face-painting.

Gray Ghost Vineyards is the family winery at 14706 Lee Hwy., near the Amissville fire hall. Both the former governor and the congressman have accepted invitations to attend the event and speak.

Allen is well known to Virginians from his service as governor in the years 1994 to 1998 and his term in the U.S. Senate from 2001 to 2007. This election year, Allen is seeking to regain the Senate seat he narrowly lost in the election of 2006 to Democrat Jim Webb, who is retiring after a single term in the Senate. Allen’s Democratic opponent in the November election is former Gov. Tim Kaine. The race, which recent polls indicate is virtually tied, is rated one of the most closely watched and hotly contested U.S. Senate races of 2012.

Hurt, who is less well known in the area, was elected to represent Virginia’s 5th Congressional District in 2010 and is seeking reelection this year. Congressional redistricting that takes effect with this election reshaped the district to include the northern portion of Fauquier County and all of Rappahannock County, formerly parts of the 7th district represented by Rep. Eric Cantor, the Republican majority leader. Hurt’s reshaped 5th District is one of the largest in Virginia, stretching from the North Carolina border to the outskirts of the Northern Virginia suburbs.

For more information on the event, call 540-522-3417 or email events@culpepergop.org.

‘Artist’s Choice’ and more at RDA

“Great Egret” by nature photographer Jackie Bailey Labovitz is among the works at RDA’s “Artist’s Choice” show in August at Confluent Gallery.

During August, the Confluent Gallery at River District Arts (RDA) is hosting “Artist’s Choice,” a show featuring personal selections from the artists who comprise the RDA collective. “The show celebrates and displays the work and achievements of the artists who are the soul of River District Arts,” said Jerome Niessen, owner of the renovated apple packing building that houses the collective. He and his wife, Lucille, are the founders of River District Arts.

Thirteen artists now have studios at River District Arts, all currently open for public visits 10 to 5 Friday-Sunday at Rappahannock Central. They work in a variety of mediums, including oils, fiber, watercolor, handmade paper and ceramics. Marilyn Armor, a studio artist who works both in collage and watercolor , says she “enjoys the camaraderie and inspiration” she draws from her fellow artists.

Tammy Wiedenhaefer, a member of the Virginia Watercolor Society, just joined the group this month and says she is excited about having a studio space “away from the house” where she can interact with artists and art enthusiasts alike. She describes her new RDA studio as “spacious, inviting and having great north light.” Wiedenhaefer has an upcoming solo show at Fauquier Hospital in November.

RDA’s new art and marketing director Jim Allmon says there are several diverse shows planned for the two exhibition spaces at RDA. The Confluent Gallery will host “In Unison,” a cultural collaboration of 20 D.C. printmakers in September and October and a two-woman show with Margaret Neuhaus and Elise Wiarda in October and November. The River Gallery will host photographers Andrew Morgan and Mark Saylor in October, and nature photographer Jackie Bailey Labovitz premieres a series of photographs on canvas in the River Gallery during the Rappahannock artists’ tour the first weekend of November.

‘Line Shape Color’ opens Aug. 31

One of Patricia Underwood’s “visual calligraphies” to be on exhibit at Middle Street Gallery.

Beginning Aug. 31, the Middle Street Gallery in Sperryville will feature an exhibit of recent works of two local artists – Patricia Underwood and Kevin Adams.

Underwood, who lives in Castleton, will have two of her visual calligraphies on display; one inspired by a visual language of music, and the other sourced from pictographs, found in a cave in Aruba, of the near-extinct Arawak tribe.

This Kevin Adams’ painting is among those included in Middle Street’s “Line Shape Color” show in September.

Adams, whose paintings have been shown in American embassies around the world, lives in Washington, and has had works commissioned by the U.S. Department of the Interior to commemorate the anniversaries of several national parks, including Shenandoah National Park. His works focus on visual landscapes, especially those of Rappahannock County.

The exhibit will run until Sept. 30. There’s an artists’ opening reception from 2 to 5 p.m. at Middle Street on Sept. 15.

Sperryville artist honored at southern art show

Patton Wilson’s “High-Horse,” oil on canvas, is among the works the Sperryville artist is exhibiting in Huntsville’s southern artists show.

Patton Wilson, a Rappahannock County artist, has several pieces on display at the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama this summer. Wilson’s pieces are part of a the museum’s “Red Clay Survey: 2012 Exhibition of Contemporary Southern Art.” The exhibition, which runs through Sept. 16, is open to the public this year and and focuses on established and emerging artists in 11 southern states. Its goal is to “take the pulse” of contemporary southern art through a selection of work in all styles and media.

Wilson, whose work you can find locally at R.H. Ballard in Washington, was one of 61 artists chosen from the 1,400 submissions. He has received considerable national and international recognition, including being awarded the prestigious Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant in 2009. His work has been displayed all across the country – including at Indiana’s Fort Wayne Museum of Art and the Forbes Galleries in New York. Wilson lives and paints in Sperryville. His son, Lucas, is an illustrator and musician living in Richmond. His wife, Jane, is the executive director of Rappahannock’s Headwaters Foundation.

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